Utility Planet is the official blog for the column of the same name in The Spectrum Monitor. It replaces Utility World in the discontinued Monitoring Times magazine. Utilities are all VLF/LF/MF/HF (and sometimes low-band VHF) radio communications except broadcasting, CB, and non-emergency amateur. If you understood the last sentence, you know enough to read this blog.

Friday, March 29, 2013

VOA Radiogram is a very interesting new experiment using amateur digital modes in the free Fldigi software package to broadcast news. It started March 16 with a "soft launch," then the "official launch" last weekend. This weekend, it will be featuring MFSK modes.

The blog at the VOA link is extremely informative, describing not only the Radiogram shows but similar experiments at other SWBC stations.

Here is
the “menu” for VOA Radiogram on 30 and 31 March 2013. This weekend, the
MFSK modes are featured. The listing below shows the mode, center audio
frequency, and duration of transmission in minutes:seconds.

MFSK4 1500Hz 0:40*

MFSK16 1500Hz 1:00

MFSK32 1000Hz 1:00

MFSK32 2500Hz 1:00

PSKR125 2500Hz 1:00

PSKR250 2500Hz 1:00

MFSK64 2500Hz 1:00

MFSK64 2500Hz 3:07 Flmsg format

PSKR500 2000Hz 0:58

MFSK128 2000Hz 0:57**

MFSK32 2000Hz 1:40 Image

MFSK32 1500Hz 0:58 Image

* No RSID. You must tune the audio frequency very carefully. Don’t worry if it does not work.
**The RSID might not work, so manually select MFSK128 (needs new version of Fldigi) and the 2000 Hz center audio frequency.
Transmission schedule:
(all days and times UTC): Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.
Please send reports, audio samples, screenshots, etc to voaradiogram@voanews.com.
If you are unable to listen to the program because of Easter weekend, this MFSK show will be repeated in the next few weeks.

Monday, March 25, 2013

This headline sounds a lot worse than the actual news. Radio Japan broadcasts a single half hour program per day to North America by short wave. It's on at 0500 UTC for the western half of the continent, and repeated at 1200 on a different beam slew for the eastern half.

The Disco Palace is on more than that, and THEY are in DRM.

These two short transmissions come from the TDF site in French Guyana that was reported on yesterday in this blog. As we know, it is closing April 1, for economic reasons. Obviously, all services contracting for time on the site's 5 transmitters must either drop their NA beams or look for increasingly scarce alternatives.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

[This story, from a local paper, does a good job laying out the dilemma facing short wave broadcasting. Translated from French, not all that well, by moi. Editorial comments in italics. -Hugh]

Journal France-Guyane - all the news in your area in Guyana
- FranceGuyane.fr.htm

Bad Waves of Montsinéry

Nicolas CAMUS

France-Guyane 19.02.2013

The TDF international short wave broadcast center located at
Montsinéry will close in April.

Caption from missing photo:--The Montsinéry center has
five transmitters of 500 kilowatts (kW) each. For comparison, the power of an
FM transmitter is 1 kW. (HG)--

These are the waves of another time. A time when internet
did not exist, and the only accessible public information channels in many countries came from governments reluctant to open up. The
international center established in Montsinéry, Guyana to broadcast
this wave will close its doors on April 1.

Built in 1981 by TDF (formerly TéléDiffusion de France), and
becoming operational in 1984, a set of four giant transmitters - and five in
1993 - enabled international stations like the BBC or RFI to reach all of the
Americas, plus West Africa and Australia.

But it is no longer up to date. "There are several
reasons: competition from Internet and satellite platforms, and also the fact
that many developing countries that were our main targets are now more stable
politically," explains René Iafrate.

[Thank goodness someone is willing to admit that the end of the Cold War is why governments stopped funding SWBC, and not just take the easy way out by blaming newer technology. -Hugh]

The territorial delegate in charge of TDF Guyana admits:
"Shortwave is no longer attractive and the market collapsed. Our budget is
now one quarter of our expenses." In these conditions, it is difficult to operate
the site, which is the electric company's largest customer. It is not the only
one closed. The island of Bonaire (off Venezuela) and Sackville (Canada)
suffered the same fate.

SIX EMPLOYEES RETRAINED

I must say that consumption patterns have changed. [Literal translation - verb in the first person. -Hugh] If the
radio is still an excellent way for expatriates to stay in touch with news of
their country, they are listening on a computer or via satellite TV. "It's
simple. The short wave requires frequency changes, and it is often of lower
quality, so it is less comfortable, "says René Iafrate.

[Ignoring that technology is available to make SWBC work better, were anyone willing to spend the money, when cheaper alternatives exist. -Hugh]

Chosen for its location of "interesting strategic
level" to reach three different continents, the Montsinéry site will be
dismantled in six to nine months. TDF will offer the six employees of the site a
training plan to work in the fields of TNT or FM. These sectors have more
future.

[Undoubtedly true. I would assume "TNT" refers to something relating to network television, not the manufacture of explosives, though that has a future as well. -Hugh]